Portuguese Dictionary

Dicionario Portugues

Portuguese English Dictionary

English Portuguese Dictionary

Portuguese (Português)

Portuguese is a Romance language spoken by about 191 million people mainly in Brazil (Brasil) and Portugal. The Portuguese language is spoken in many countries. Portuguese is the official language in many of these countries.

Portuguese is a descendent of Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants from 218 BC. The earliest records of a distinctly Portuguese language appear in administrative documents dating from the 9th century AD. In 1290 King Denis decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" should be known as the Portuguese language and should be officially used.

A reformed Portuguese orthography (nova ortografia), in which words were spelled more in accordance with their pronunciation, was adopted is Portugal in 1916. A slightly modified form was adopted in Brazil in 1943 and revised in 1970.